Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Rolling coverage of day 6 action, athletics, swimming

Australia has broken a Paralympics table tennis drought to take gold, smashed a world record in the pool and found a silver lining in athletics. Rolling day 6 coverage.

Yeah, na.

Is there anything more Aussie than that?

That’s also the nickname that’s been given to Australia’s new table tennis sensation Lina Lei after she won gold.

One of three Chinese-born players who now call Australia home after switching allegiances, Lina became the first Aussie in 37 years to win Paralympic gold in table tennis.

Leaving no-one in any doubt about where her allegiances now lie, Lina idid it the hard way – beating her former Chinese teammate Xiong Guiyan 6-11, 11-5, 115, 9-11, 11-5 in a thriller for the Class 9 title.

It was her sixth Paralympic gold medal of her career but her first in the green and gold and she said it could not have been any sweeter.

Lei Lina pulled off a great win to take gold.

“I’m so proud,” she said. “I feel good because this is my first time representing Australia.”

Australia’s wait for a second Paralympic gold in table tennis only took an hour as Yang Qian, beat Brazil’s Bruna Alexandre. 13-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 in the Class 10 decider.

Yang hasn’t been given an Aussie nickname yet but can expect one soon – especially if she and Lina deliver another gold for their new homeland when they join forces in the team event.

The Aussie men also have a great shot at getting on top of the podium with one-armed bear attack survivor Ma Lin, the third naturalised Chinese player in the squad, preparing to link up with Sam von Einem in the team event after both won silver medals in their individual events.

“I’m so proud of the whole squad,” Australia’s para table tennis coach Alois Rosario.

“To have someone like Lina playing for us is such a bonus.

“Not only is she a champion player but she’s such a great person and has fitted into our group so well and is passing on her knowledge to the rest of the team and that’s going to have benefits for a long time to come.”

AUSSIES SMASH WORLD RECORD

Meanwhile, Australia’s swimmers have smashed the world record to cap a golden night for our team at the Tokyo Paralympics.

After going three days without winning any gold medals, the Aussies won three in less than two and half hours on Monday – taking the total to 11 with six days of competition still to go.

Rowan Crothers, Will Martin, Matt Levy and Ben Popham put the icing on the cake when they joined forces to win the men’s 34-points freestyle relay – smashing the world record in the process.

Matthew Levy, Rowan Crothers and Ben Popham celebrate after winning gold in the relay. Picture: Getty Images

“We’ve been wanting to win this for the past five years so this has been a major focus for all four of us boys,” Crothers told Channel 7.

“We said ‘all right, from the start to the end we’re not going to give up first’ so that was the idea.”

Sydney’s Timothy Hodges collected his first Paralympic medal in the pool, by just 0.04.

An electrical engineering student, the 20-year-old got his fingertips on the wall in the nick of time to win the bronze medal in the men’s 100m backstroke for the Class 9, which includes amputees.

The Aussie team smashed the world record. Picture: Getty Images

“I’ve been chasing a medal at the Paralympic Games since I was 12 years old. It’s been my dream,” he said.

“There have been times especially during those long, hard training sets where nothing’s going to plan and your coach is pushing you and trying to get you to work a little bit harder.”

SILVER LINING

Australia also won two silver medals in athletics.

Wheelchair racer Rheed McCracken posted a season best time of 15.37 seconds to finish second in the 100m behind his lifelong rival, Tunisia’s Walid Ktila.

It was the third time in a row that McCracken had won the silver medal in the T34 final at the Paralympics – and third time on the trot that Ktila won the gold, with the 36-year-old this time setting a new Games record of 15.01.

Rheed McCracken had to settle for another silver.

“There is real happiness because (silver) is a massive achievement, but there is a tiny bit of frustration that we haven’t been able to win gold,” said McCracken.

“I don’t want to say too much else about that. People see it how they see it. I don’t really know, mate. I’ve been scratching my head for nine years now.”

Michal Burian broke the world record in his Classification with his final throw to win the overall silver in the standing javelin.

Burian, who has a club foot, threw 66.29m to break the F44 class world record but the gold went to India’s Sumit Antil, who lost his left leg below the knee after a motorcycle accident so is listed as class F64, threw 68.55m.

Originally published as Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Rolling coverage of day 6 action, athletics, swimming